Ship's Holog: June 2078, fragment #13

If you are receiving our holocom, you should be able to hear my voice and see the 3-D holographic images we are videoing. In case you are simply reading a transcript of our holog, you will have to imagine what I am describing of the landscape along the shores of Lake Champlain in New Vermont.

Finally, notice the third major feature of this part of Lake Champlain: the now-familiar chain of granite buildings that line the shore. These buildings contain a mix of residential, retail, and workplace space, enabling most of its residents to live, shop, work, and spend their leisure time all within walking distance of each other. Residents of these buildings who work in the quarries or tend herds catch a lift on the rail cars to and from work in the hills and mountains.

The large sign over the wharf area tells us that this is the river town of New Brandon. The original town of Brandon is actually some fifteen kilometers inland from here, but that town is now sparsely populated, serving primarily as a quarry outpost at the foot of the mountains. It is also a depot for the occasional pack-trains that carry goods through the Brandon Gap to the shepherd and logging communities of the Randolph Valley and return laden with wood for furniture-making and wool for spinning and weaving in the workshops of the lake communities.

In our next holocom, rather than my telling you about life in New Brandon, I’m going to let my young (45 year-old) grandson, Noah, show it to you, as he and several other expedition members take a trip ashore to take on needed provisions for our journey.